Saudades on Sunday in Wadley

"If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where do you expect to find it?" - Dogen

This morning I woke up with what can only be described well with the Portuguese word -- Saudades. It is a term that means a cross between home sickness and longing or a familiar place or people.

Saudades... what is it about Sundays, that no matter where I travel, it is only when I am alone on Sundays, that I feel the old familiar longing to be sitting down to a meal with my parents and my brothers, eating a big plate of rice and peas with fried plantain and drinking a glass of one of my mothers wonderful juices.

This is the first time in the 5 weeks of my journey that I have felt saudades. Last Sunday morning I had finished washing my clothes, by hand in a series of buckets, as the healing centre has no electricity, much less a washing machine, and hanging my clothes on the barbed wire fence at the side, again for lack of a clothes line, when Dona Cele, the caretaker, came walking fromtown with a couple of friends of hers. She was bringing them to introduce them to me and to check on how I was doing.

One of the friends, seeing the clothes on the line told me " We never work on Sundays"she siad, "and we eat whatever we have in the house. Sundays are days for visiting friends and family and for socializing." I had not thought about this before but in my family when I was very young Sundays were the day when my grandparents came to visit and later when my brothers and I would visit my parents for Sunday Dinner. When I was married and living in Brazil it was also the day we went to visit my ex-husband`s families. Ahhh, now I understand those saudades... This tradition of visiting family and friends in this small town in Mexico was very similar to the tradition in my families across three countries -- Jamaica, Brazil and Canada.

Well this morning as I was "indulging" in saudades,to use a Carlos casteneda term, dona Cele stopped by because she said she thought there was some reason that she needed to visit me. She stayed for tea and a visit and then invited me to her house in Wadley to cenar .. for sunday dinner! Her oldest daughter and her two children were visiting from a nearby town for the weekend, so together with Dona Cele`s two daughters and one grandson who live with her we had a lively mid afternoon meal.

There were no rice and peas, but i was happy to chow down on sopa de arroz, or rice cooked with tomato sauce, tortas de papa con queso -- potato cakes with cheese, aguacate or avacado, tomates or tomatoes, some cuerdo, or pork for those who eat meat, and of course, the ever present totrillas! All cooked with love in dona Cele`s tiny one room house and served on a folding table in the still under construction outdoor kitchen to be. I provided the yogurt postre-desert, which was a hit with the kids and adults alike.

It was a wonderful Sunday dinner and though I couldn`t spend Sunday with my family or visit my friends. I am very happy to know that wherever I go there seem to be friends to share wonderful meals and laughs with ... After all, isn`t that what life`s about -- friends, laughter, love and great food!

Lessons learned: 1) Wherever you go there you are ... This is the title of a book by Jon Cabat Zinn, that I would highly recommend. It is also a great lesson ... Wherever you go enjoy being where you are and disfriutar, or enjoy the people and the customs. 2) Traditions in many parts of the world are often more similar than they are different. 3) Wherever you go, one of the key ingredients to staying well is good food and good friends. They are the basis of a good life!

staywell and walk with Spirit n Beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller.